Texas wildfires burn 3 million acres

Wildfires have burned more than 3 million acres in Texas since the fire season started, more than any other year since the Texas Forest Service began keeping records.

The fire season officially began Nov. 15, said Forest Service Spokeswoman April Saginor.

Officials have reported 12,362 fires to the agency this season, Saginor said. Texas’ annual budget for fighting wildfires is $15.5 million. As of Sunday, the state had spent $126.7 million, Saginor said.

“This is an unusual year for us,” Saginor said. “We’ve surpassed 3 million acres. This is the first time that’s happened since we’ve kept records.”

Three million acres is more than twice the size of Delaware. The Texas Forest Service has kept records of acres burned since 1985.

Randall County authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order during the blaze. Rohnert said residents of about 20 homes evacuated. All had been allowed to return to their homes Monday.

“(Firefighters) were careful letting people back because there’s a lot of straw and cow manure there,” he said. “That stuff burns for a long time.”

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze. Paramedics treated two for heat exhaustion and a third for minor cuts after a window in his vehicle shattered during the fire, authorities said. None required hospitalization.

Randall County spokesman Danny Alexander said circumstances surrounding the fire were suspicious and it remained under investigation Monday. The fire destroyed an outbuilding, but no other structures were damaged, officials said.

A small fire in Deaf Smith County burned about two acres, the Forest Service said. A fire in southern Moore County burned about 10,000 acres, said Dumas Fire Chief Paul Jenkins.

“It was 2 miles wide in places and 9 miles long,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the fire started about 12:40 p.m. Sunday and was brought under control about 9:45 p.m. Crews returned Monday morning to extinguish trees that had flared up.

Because of how dry it has been, Jenkins compared this fire season to one in 2006, when 1.98 million acres burned. Wildfires in 2006 were responsible for killing 13 people and thousands of head of livestock.

This year fires have claimed one life in the Panhandle. Elias Jaquez, 49, a Cactus volunteer firefighter, died from injuries he suffered fighting a wildfire April 9.

Potter County Fire-Rescue assistant chief Pat Fitzpatrick said county resources were spread thin Sunday afternoon. The department provided mutual aid for the Moore County fire, but also responded to a 2 1/2-acre fire in the median of Interstate 40 between Wildorado and Bushland, Fitzpatrick said. Early Sunday evening a report of an explosion scrambled crews to the Pioneer Natural Resources’ Fain Plant gas plant, about 25 miles north of Amarillo, he said.

“Their flare belched out some fluid and caught some grass on fire,” Fitzpatrick said. “There was nothing there to burn. It only burned about 500 square feet.”

Saginor said the Forest Service will remain stationed around the state to respond to fires quickly until enough moisture is in vegetation and the ground to slow wildfires.

Amarillo has only received .68 inches of rain this year, said Krissy Scotten, National Weather Service meteorologist. The next driest year on record was 1953, when Amarillo had 2.88 inches as of June 19.

“For the next two weeks it doesn’t look promising for any rain at all,” Scotten said. “If we don’t get anything now and we go into September with less than two inches, it’s going to be bad.”

With conditions being so dry, Saginor said she expects the wildfire threat to continue through the summer.

“I think we’ll have critical days throughout the summer,” Saginor said. “We’re just so critically dry.”